


About Wally and Artemis

by Pichitinha



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/M, Fluff, Independent Chapters, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-24
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-04-06 00:30:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 7,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4201023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pichitinha/pseuds/Pichitinha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A twelve drabble-collection with tiny romantic moments of Wally and Artemis’ life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Wall

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve used this idea with Harry and Ginny two (or three???) years ago for Brazil’s Valentine’s Day. Not much after that I used it again with Percy and Annabeth. Those were my two OTPs of the time. Now I have Spitfire too, so it seems only fair to use it here as well. Hope you enjoy it.

As far as Wally was concerned, there was no _bad_ place to make out with Artemis. And they tried a lot.

They were both fairy acquaintances with each other’s couches. They really knew well each other’s beds. Kitchen’s counters of almost every house were no strangers to the hormonal teenagers.

But something had to be said about the wonderful thing that was making out against a wall. Wally could have never foreseen that it would be that good. As he pressed Artemis’ body to the closet’s wall, his lips searching further into hers, and she let out a sound that seemed to shoot adrenaline through his whole body, he decided that no place could actually be better than a wall.

There were very little places of his body that weren’t touching hers, and that alone was something to celebrate. His hands had easy access everywhere, and so did his lips. She had her legs spread, securing him even closer than he thought possible, and Wally was sure he was going to die right there.

What a wonderful death would that be.

But then Artemis being Artemis had to show him that things can always get better. Without much warning she used her left hand to push him away a little and as soon as his legs were untangled from hers – his expression completely lost and confused – she pushed him against the wall and pressed her body into his.

“Oh _God_.” He muttered when she kissed him again.

He tried pulling her closer, but she made sure to let him know that she was the one in charge. She pressed her knee between his legs, approximating them as much as physically possible, and used her hand to draw his head closer, even as her upper body totally pressed him against the wall.

“Enjoy that, _Wall_ -man?” She asked in between kisses and he could feel her smirk on his skin.

“You got us in a closet to make out against a wall just so you could say that, didn’t you?” And if he didn’t love her before, _Christ_ , he did now.

She shrugged lightly and grinned wildly. “Maybe.”

Yep, he definitely did now.


	2. Archer

For a while after Artemis joined the team Wally used to think that she resented the fact that she wasn’t a public figure. Sure, since joining the team Kid Flash had barely ever gone out with his uncle anymore, but he, Robin, Aqualad and Speedy were still known, still famous.

Of course he soon realized the problem wasn’t that. She quite enjoyed not being known - as it would be expected with such a cover name. She wasn’t jealous that they were famous, she was only envious of how highly they – Wally – talked about Sppedy.

That was in the past, though. They’ve been dating for six months now and he doesn’t say those things anymore (in fact, even if before he kept saying them, he only ever believed the first time or so).

And it’s a good thing he doesn’t tell her that Roy is better anyway, because he is currently sitting on the bleachers watching her in the archery tournament she is in and he is awestruck.

Sure, he sees her in battle all the time. But it’s hard to focus when he also has a part to play. And she never let him watch her archery trainings. This is the very first time that he has been able to focus completely on how ridiculously good with a bow and arrow she is.

She takes hit after hit and never misses the target – and he knows her enough to know that two out of the three times she didn’t perfectly hit the center were on purpose – and it’s no surprise to him when they announce she’s the winner.

After the medal and trophy are given and the competitors are dismissed, she goes searching for him, and he’s waiting right outside the contest area. He’s the only one there with her – she claimed it was just a city tournament anyway so it would be stupid to actually invite people – and she hugged him happily with the trophy in one hand.

“You were absolutely amazing, babe. And honestly, you didn’t have to miss those two shots, there’s nothing wrong in being good.” He says when they part and hold hands walking towards the exit.

She rolls her eyes. “It felt weird getting all of them right. Besides, it’s just a small city tournament Wally, it’s not like I’m competing against Olympic winners.”

“You might as well be, your difference to the second place was huge. You were obviously way above this league.”

She looks to the other side to see if there are cars coming so they can cross, and once they’re on the other side of the street she looks at him. She seems uncomfortable.

“I told you it’s just a silly tournament, Wally, just drop it. You don’t need to feign all this excitement, we’ve both seen Green Arrow shoot.”

His eyebrows nearly touch his head in confusion. “Well, yeah, and he’s a legend. But he has years of practice, it’s no shame for you to be in second after him.”

She chuckles and looks away again, checking if there’s anyone close the zeta tube in front of them.

“Right.” She says and beams them to the cave.

Wally comes out of it a little disoriented, but recovers quickly and takes her free hand in his, turning her face to look at him. “What do you mean with ‘right’?”

“I mean I’ve also seen Roy shoot and I know I’m nowhere near him, either.”

He stares at her for a few seconds and then takes the trophy out of her hand and places it on the floor, so he can grab both of her hands and make her focus on his face and in what he is saying.

“Artemis, that might’ve been true, like, a year ago. And all the times I said that, you know I didn’t mean it, right?”

“I’m not saying it because you used to, I’m saying it because it’s true-“

He cuts her off. “No it isn’t. Listen to me, you are absolutely brilliant with a bow and arrow. I was genuinely dumbfounded watching you shoot. You are an amazing archer, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, okay?”

She looks at him for an instant, like she’s looking for the catch, and then she hugs him again, tightly. 

“Thank you.”

He kisses her forehead and hugs her too. “Anytime.” They stay there for a few more moments and then he asks. “Uh, Artemis?”

“Hm?”

“Think I could put your trophy on my souvenir collection?”

And then she kisses him and he knows she finally believes what he said.


	3. Laboratory

Artemis had always known Wally was a huge nerd. Completely in love with Physics and Chemistry – and better at Biology than anyone she knew even though he claimed not to like it – it was hard to miss his excitement when anyone asked him for help with their homework.

She’d learned the hard way that if the subject was either physics or chemistry, studying actually meant studying. She feigned annoyance – ok, so maybe part of it was real – but she honestly found it amusing. She knew he’d be big in the field someday – the thrive he obviously had – and she couldn’t help but feel extremely proud, chest warm with love for him.

But if she believe she knew how much he loved science, she was mistaken. She had seriously underestimated what a gigantic nerd he was.

She truly found out the first time they visited Stanford’s lab. As soon as he opened the door she could hear him gasp and his jaw drop and she swore he looked more awed by the equipment in front of him than he had been the first time he saw her naked.

He wasted no time zipping around the room, moving so fast she knew that if tried a bit more he’d use super speed. “Babe, look at this, oh my god, I can’t _believe_ I’ll have free access to this, and” he gasped, moving again. “oh man this is the best thing I have ever seen, I never want to leave this place.”

 She looked around, expecting weird looks – god knows how people reacted to Wally’s enthusiasm, she remembered clearly their first visit to a science museum – but she found that half the people didn’t care, and the other half seemed to think ‘yeah, been there’.

“Ok, Wall-Man, we’re just touring the place, stop touching everything, you’ll break something.” She took a few steps closer to him.

He ignored her as he kept analyzing the instrument in his hands. “I am _so happy_ we’ll study here, Artemis.”

She’d gotten her acceptance letter the day before. Wally had gotten his a month earlier – a special offer for merit, apparently – and he’d been crazy waiting for hers too.

And he looked at her, his eyes bright with excitement, and she couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“Me too, Wally.”


	4. Light

To say that Artemis had a rough childhood would be highly accurate. She couldn’t actually remember of a single time in which she had done something because it would be fun, like a kid was supposed to. Nothing was her decision and nothing was ever made to entertain. She had to learn. She had to fight. That’s what growing up had been about.

By the time her mom got out of prison and told her dad to leave, she was much too old – or so she believed – to be a kid, having hardened and grown up much earlier.

And then she entered the team and _Kid_ Flash sure made his name worth. But she disliked him – or so she said – and quite honestly he just sounded stupid and immature and infantile and everything she couldn’t stand because she had never been a kid, and she didn’t know how to handle that.

Kids were hard, _too hard_ for her, hence their experience taking care of children when all of the adults vanished thanks to Klarion, and easy for Wally, hence said experience. And that was because Wally himself was still a child on the inside. He had the heart and innocence of one, even if he’d hate hearing that – which was stupid because Artemis thought that it was one of the best qualities someone could have.

And so when they started dating, she found herself learning to do things she should’ve done when she was six. Because Wally was determined to give her everything she deserved, even if it was a few – _several_ \- years late.

So she was a fifteen-year-old girl playing hide-and-seek with the team – the fact that one of them was an alien, the other a clone, the other an Atlantean and the other raised by Batman helped her enjoy it because none of them were actually used to it -, or a sixteen-year-old riding a bike in the park – because until then riding had been the means to get somewhere, not the final point -, or a seventeen-year-old actually coloring a children’s book – and yeah, okay, maybe she liked it, so what.

But she was not ready to what found her when she entered the apartment that night. Living with Wally made a significant change to their lives – whether it was on purpose or not, _conscious_ or not - it felt like a rite of passage to _real_ adulthood. Living on campus hardly felt like being independent – having your own house to which you paid rent and shared a bed with your boyfriend? That did.

So when she opened the door – after fumbling with the keys for several minutes since the neighborhood apparently had had a problem in the electric system and all the streets and houses were pitch dark – and found an actual pillow and blanket fort illuminated by what she presumed was a lantern and her boyfriend’s figure inside of it, she couldn’t help the stupid grin that completely took over her face.

“Wally?” She asked when she approached the ‘entrance’, announcing to him know that she was home, and he opened the sheets for her to pass.

“Hey, babe!” He greeted her with a happy smile – earnestly a little scary since he was illuminated by the flashlight right below his chin. “There’s no power in the house, and you know what that means: camping in the living room.” He exclaimed like that was the most logical thing in the world, and she just stared blankly at him. “Oookay, so maybe you didn’t know. But now you do. So here’s your lantern,” he handed her one equal to his. “please come in and make yourself at home.”

She rolled her eyes. “I _am_ home.”

“Well, you know what I mean.” He had his eyebrows scrunched high at that.

She laughed at this. At _him_. At his ability to surprise her every day with things so small but so big at the same time.

She climbed up to him and opened her legs to sit across his. “I thought the fun of forts was to _make_ them? Like, together?”

He paled a little at this. “I didn’t think… we can absolutely build another one babe, I’m sorry-“

She laughed and kissed him, making him drop his lantern and illuminating the farthest corner of the tent. “I’m kidding. I love it.”

He smiled and kissed her again. “I figured we could use something like this do de-stress.”

“Yeah.” She moved closer and hugged him tightly. “But I think we could totally dispose of the lanterns. Don’t really see the need for _light_ right now.”

She could feel his smirk on her neck, right before he kissed it. “If you insist.”

He caught the flashlight and turned it off then. Turns out she was right, light was the last thing they needed.


	5. Yawn

Artemis has always been a light sleeper, probably because of her dad and the group of villains that used to frequent her house.

Being a light sleeper in Gotham was a little complicated. It came in hand sometimes – she’s stopped her house from being robbed twice – but generally it just meant she was tired all the time from waking up at every car that drove her street and every cat that jumped on a dumpster.

So, when she had tests in school or they were in a particularly hard mission, she’d usually sleep in the cave. There was no noise – all rooms were soundproof – and the bed was extremely comfortable. She wouldn’t actually mind living there permanently if it wasn’t for her mother alone in their house.

So, it’s safe to say she finds it a little weird when she’s awaken by a _noise_. She’s in the mountain, in her secluded room, it wasn’t supposed to be any noise there.

She notices a second later the _noise_ is a yawn and can’t actually help the grin that takes over her face.

“Hey.” He says lightly when he sees she’s awake. He looks so peaceful and happy – like she feels - that she can’t hold the giggles that bubble up her mouth. She’s _giggling_. Oh god. “Hum, you seem happy.” He mocks her and turns to pull her closer.

She looks up at his green eyes and once again is surprised by how her life had a complete turnaround when she joined the team. She could never in a million years have guessed that she would end up dating Kid Flash – dating _Wally West_ – and yet, there she is. And she is so completely in love with the nerd that it’s ridiculous.

“I had a good night.” She smiles up at him and moves her hand to his chest, feeling the fast rise and down of his heartbeat.

“Yeah, me too.”

They kiss slowly, remembering just _what_ had made last night so good, and she is highly aware of every piece of his skin that is touching hers. It’s _amazing_.

When they part, she yawns. He laughs a little and settles back on the pillows pulling her along.

“I tired you out, huh?”

She snorts. “Please, _I_ tired _you_ out.” She rearranges herself on his chest and sighs contently. “Now let’s sleep a little bit more, we have the whole weekend to enjoy.”

He agrees silently and just when she’s about to fall asleep he yawns again and she awakens a little.

She’ll probably need to get used to the yawning thing. It’s a good feeling. 


	6. Adopt

To Wally’s surprise, Artemis had been been pretty open – and even excited – to the idea of moving in together. Granted, they’ve been together for almost three years, but he thought she’d put more of a fight and go on how they’re young and that her life is a mess and that it’s  _complicated_.

She didn’t. When he asked for the first time, nonchalantly in the middle of any conversation, she smiled and just said  _sure_. That had led to kisses that had led to a make out session that had led to sex that had led to  _we need to have a place of our own right now_ because roommate-less weekends didn’t come all that often.

Still, no matter how open she had been about the ordeal, he knew that what he wanted to ask  _next_ wouldn’t be so simple. She would find a thousand reasons as to why getting a pet would be really hard for their college lives and that they would be short on money and that she possibly didn’t even like dogs (she did, but he was prepared for her to change her mind about it).

And that’s how he found out that maybe he didn’t know his girlfriend enough. When he got home that day, speech ready on how they absolutely needed to get a dog, he heard – and he was  _sure_ he had imagined – a bark before even getting his keys.

He opened the door carefully, sure that it was a prank – or a villain, who knows – and was met with Artemis sitting on the couch with a sheepish expression and a white pit-bull on her hold.

“Uh, babe?” He asked as his eyebrows shot up, sure he wasn’t seeing right.

“Hey!” She smiled a little nervously and got up, letting the dog go. He stood by her side and looked at him cautiously. “Say hi to Brucely!” She tried still unsure.

He looked at the dog –  _Brucely_. “What?”

“Ok, I’m sorry. I know I should’ve asked you first, but I saw his owners leave him alone and drive away and I just couldn’t let him there. So… I adopted him! Surprise?” She smiled again and fidget her hands.

“You adopted a dog?” He asked still sure he went crazy. Things just can’t work out  _that_  easily.

“I did. Are you mad? I know you love dogs and look at how adorable he is.”

He shook his head and got out of his stupor. Artemis didn’t need convincing on getting a dog,  _she got one by herself_. “No, of course I’m not mad. I was actually gonna ask you today what you thought of getting one. Spent my whole day on a speech.”

She smiled and moved over him, and that made the dog follow her and jump on him before she could.

“Hey, buddy. Welcome home.” He sat down on the floor to play with him.

She soon followed suit and they were both a mess trying to get the dog to like them better.

He looked over her to meet her eyes and they were sparkling with happiness, like he was sure his was too.

So maybe she  _was_  full of surprises. He looked forward to knowing all of them.


	7. Retirement

Leaving the life behind wasn’t an easy decision for them. Both had been thinking about it, so it wasn’t forced in anyway, but when you’re a (super)hero there are some things that cling into you and are hard to let go.

Leaving their friends behind was the worst of them. They knew they’d still be friends, but they wouldn’t be seeing each other every day – they were moving to the other side of the country – and that was a huge change in their day-to-day lives.

Still, once they talked it over and decided to do it, they went on with it. They talked to everyone about it and made sure they planed everything to the minimum details. They would miss everyone, but they had plan for their future and that’s what they needed to focus on.

One evening, as they were laying in the couch of his dorm, watching a movie on his laptop, he couldn’t help but think that even though he missed the team and the missions and everything that came with it, he was happy.

 “Hey, babe.” She looked at him, waiting. “Are you happy?”

It was a stupid question, he knew it. You can’t just ask people if they’re happy. But he felt so content lying there with his girlfriend, no worries other than the papers that were due the next week (and they had already finished). He wanted her to feel it too.

She smirked at him. “Well, you could be holding me a little tighter, but I guess I can forgive that.”

He smiled and complied, kissing the top of her head in the process. “There. Happy now?”

She looked at him, her eyes bright and lips eased on a happy feature. “Very.”

He kissed her, unable to stop himself. He was so in love with this girl that sometimes it was hard to believe it. Harder yet was the fact that _she_ loved him back. He would give hero life a million times over if it meant they got to be together and _happy_.

“I’m glad we’re focusing on a normal life right now.”

She sighed and snuggled closer, looking back at the computer.

“Me too, Wally.” She caught his hand kissed his knuckles. “Love you.”

“Love you too, babe.”

Retirement wasn’t always easy, but it was in times like these he remembered why they were doing it.

Totally worth it.


	8. Teach

Wally and Artemis had been dating for exactly sixteen days when Artemis realized that being in a relationship with someone you used to fight all the time wasn’t actually easy. There were lots of things she didn’t know how to approach him on and she could see he had the same problem and it was _frustrating_. They liked each other and they were over the love-hate phase. They were good together, there was no need for this weirdness and embarrassment.

So there she is, a day later, trying to decide if they’re close enough so that she could ask him to help her with her homework and it would be okay and not awkward. That he wouldn’t make fun of her for not knowing it – even if only teasingly – or that they would actually  _study_  and not make out.

“Uh, Wally?” She opens the door to his room slightly and asks tentatively.

“Hey, Babe.” He’s at the door in less than a second, a huge smile on his face.

Hey. Uh, listen… would you mind helping me with my homework? I’m not that good with Chemistry.”

He raises his eyebrows suggestively and she knows something terrible is coming. “Ooh, I have to disagree with that.”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m serious. I’m having a real hard time with these questions.”

This time he rolls his eyes. “Of course I’ll help you, come in.”

She sits on his bed, her book on her lap, and soon he’s sitting by her side, his right arm touching her left.

“Ok, let me see what you’re learning.” He takes her book and makes a quick reading – and by quick she means he reads the whole chapter in like ten seconds – and grins because  _oh my god I love this subject, it’s one of my favorites_  and looks at her  _super_  excited to help her because  _science_. “Ok, that’s awesome. What are you having trouble with?”

She clears her throat, still a little embarrassed to let him know that she’s not actually getting  _anything_  and tries to explain the main points she’s having problems with. He looks and listens patiently, making some remarks on her notebook, and considers all of her doubts. Not once does he laugh or does anything other than look totally and completely understanding.

When she’s finished he takes her book and the notes he made and goes one by one, explaining all of them in different ways and showing her examples and trying to find practical situations so she could understand.

She finds it all a little bit hard in the beginning because he’s excited and thinking at  _his_  speed and she’s not actually following it, but he soon realizes that and slows down, figuring out the right way to teach her stuff so that she’ll really  _get_  it, not only memorize it for two days.

It takes him two hours to explain everything to her – he had to go back a little in the book and explain some old stuff – and so that she could finish all of her homework, but they finally do it.

She has no idea why she was worried in the first place, because of course Wally wouldn’t make her feel bad in any way. She was so stupid.

“Thanks for helping me, Wall-Man, couldn’t have done it without you.” She nudges his arm a little bit as she says it.

He smiles and raises his arm to circle her shoulders, bringing her closer. “Anytime, Babe. I really enjoy Chemistry and I really enjoy spending time with you and I  _really_  enjoy combining both.”

She has to laugh. “You’re a good teacher, you know?”

His smile turns sheepish. “Thanks, Artemis.”

She kisses him then, as a way of thanking him – and because she  _can_  and she _wants_  to, but who cares – and he smiles into her lips.

“If this is the reward for the help, are you sure you don’t have anything else you’re having trouble with?”

She pushes him then and he falls off the bed and they both laugh loudly.

And it is then, seventeen days into their relationship, that she realizes it actually isn’t that  _hard_. They’re already easy around each other.

They can totally make it work.


	9. Eve

It’s kind of stupid, but Artemis is at least fifty percent sure Wally is gonna forget their anniversary. Well, okay,  _it is_  on New Year’s, so it’s kind of hard to forget that it’s a  _special_  day, but will he remember that the changing of the year also means they’ve been together through all of those three hundred and sixty-five days? Probably not. It’s  _Wally_.

It’s not that she doesn’t have faith in him. He remembered their first Valentine’s Day together and also her birthday, but something in him just screams the cliché of the guy that will forget their anniversary. And she hopes she’s wrong because she doesn’t want to be the cliché girl that gets angry and screams  _you forgot our anniversary?????_  but she knows she  _will_  so he better not make her.

So they have five hours until the clock strikes midnight. They’re once again at the tower – and that’s where  _they_  began, if that doesn’t jog his memory  _god dammit_  – and she’s thinking about how he probably  _did_  forget because she can see he’s making plans with Dick for tomorrow and she’s  _so mad_ , she’s been dropping hints for the last week and a half and he never once showed any sign of understanding.  _Ugh_.

She’s gonna keep her cool, though. It’s New Year’s Eve, they’re on a party – well, sort of – with part of the league and her friends are there and her idiotic forgetting boyfriend is there and she’s gonna have a good time regardless of how she’s really been looking forward to a tomorrow that is not going to happen.

She manages the first two hours just fine, talking about many things with many people, enjoying the drinks and the food and simply being who she is.

The third hour is a different story, though. She decided she couldn’t hold a grudge against Wally  _before_  he fucked up, so she goes looking for him, and she can see he is  _running_  from her. Every time she gets closer he simply uses his dammed superspeed and  _disappears_. He takes at least five minutes to get back every time and she’s really annoyed at that.

After an hour and a half of this crap – only another hour and a half to go – he takes on a different approach and starts talking to  _anybody_  that happens to be close to him whenever she even  _looks_  at him. He’s on to something, that much is obvious, but she’s truly scared as to what it might be because god only knows what the hell goes through that speedster mind.

She gives up, eventually, and decides to just wait for the midnight kiss – which he won’t miss because he’d never pass an opportunity to kiss her – and go home afterwards.

When the chanting to midnight starts and he’s nowhere to be seen she decides to  _kill him_.

_Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six._

Five seconds to go and he’s  _not there_.

_Five. Four. Three. Two._

“Dammit, Wal-“

_One._

She doesn’t hear the chorus because he’s kissing her. It’s short, just a simple peck, and he’s smiling as he moves away.

“Right on time, huh?” He asks smugly as his arms circle her waist.

Just then her exppression changes from the baffled one iit held to an angry one.

“Where the hell were you? And why were you avoiding me? And you can’t just kiss me like that!”

His eyebrows shoot up. “Sorry, Beautiful, didn’t mean to scare you. And I wasn’t avoiding you.”

“You didn’t scare me.” She replies, fast. “And yes you were.”

“Well, ok, I was. But for a good reason! I was just making sure that things were alright for the surprise – and they weren’t, by the way, so I just had to convince people to help me because  _of course_  someone had to ruin it and I just-“

“Wally, you’re rambling.” She says,  _her_  eyebrows now up. “What surprise?”

“For you, of course.” He smiles at her puzzled face and pulls her to another kiss, this one longer and more passionate. “Happy anniversary, Artemis.”

“You remembered!” She can’t help but exclaim.

He rolls his eyes. “So little faith in me.”

“Sorry.” But she’s grinning. “Now, where’s this surprise?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” He grins, too, and then offers his arm for her to hold. “Follow me, my lady.” He teases.

As she takes his arm and follows him through the tower, she realizes how stupid she’s been. Would it really make a difference if he forgot it? She looks at him, his stupid happy grin and light features. He never even asked if she remembered or if she did anything or had a present. He just wants to show her his surprise.

“Hey, Wally?” She calls him and he turns to her. “Happy anniversary.”

And then he kisses her and she decides that no, it wouldn’t make a difference. Not with Wally.


	10. Mess

Artemis’ life has always been a mess. Being raised by villains was something that marked you forever and no matter how much people tried to understand, they couldn’t. You have to live it to know. It’s the only way.

From mess to mess her life progressed. It was always different, but she could always spot the disarranged point of her life.

She remembered her childhood years. Those were tinged by a red mess. Blood mess. She remembers robberies and kidnappings and all kinds of stuff that her parents used to do. She remembers Jade’s messy hair after she came back from the first trainings her father started. She remembers when _her_ hair became a mess. When there was blood and dirt and sweat and tears that she couldn’t let them see. She remembers using a bow and thinking that she could use it for something other than what her father taught her to. She could _not_ make a mess with it. But that, unfortunately, was far away.

She remembers the biggest mess to ever happen to her: her mom going to jail. She remembers the lonely nights in which she wished she wasn’t alone, and the nights her dad was there and made her train and she wished she was. She remembers the house was a mess. She remembers thinking that she was so far deep in all of it that there was no coming out of it.

And she remembers joining the team – becoming a _hero_ – and thinking what a mess it would be if – _when_ – they found out about her past. About the mess of a life she had. She remembers messing up lots of things because of this fear.

Which is why despite the some sort of hurt expression in his face, she laughed when her boyfriend mentioned that this whole _trying to go to college_ thing was a mess.

“What? Why are you laughing?” He looked actually offended that she was making fun of his suffering.

She got up from the table in which she was trying to write a letter to Stanford and walked over to him, sitting on his lap.

She kissed him deeply and had to contain the grin trying to appear on her face, settling for a small smile. “If this is what a mess is gonna be from now on, Wall-man, then I’m all up for it.”

And maybe it was the light look in her eyes or the small smile on her lips or the evenly breaths she was letting out, but he smiled and kissed her again.

“Me too, babe.”


	11. Insecure

Deciding to move in together was actually easy for them. They had already left the team by then, and leaving the dorms to share their own space seemed only natural after all the time they’d been together.

hey both talked with their families when they agreed that they were 100% ready for it and to their surprise everyone seemed to be okay with it. Advices had been given freely, of course, but everyone seemed to understand why they wanted to do it and also to agree that they were ready.

The whole process had been a walk in the park, really, until the moment they started to unpack the first boxes.

“Babe, where do you want me to put my-“ Wally was asking as he entered the living room carrying a Star Wars DVD collection in his hands, but stopped in his tracks when he saw that Artemis had the exact same thing in _her_ hands. “Oh. You have a Star Wars collection, too.”

Artemis looked from her own hands to his several times before coming out of her trance. “Oh.” She said stupidly.

“Uh… I guess we don’t really need two equal collections. Not to mention it’d be stupid to waste space like that when we really don’t know how we’ll fit everything else in here.” Wally says it like it’s obvious, but he doesn’t look very sure.

“Yes, of course, we only need one collection. I mean, the important thing is actually the movie, right?” She gives out a strange chuckle and it becomes completely awkward in the room.

“Yeah. They’re only DVDs, nothing important.” He says as his free hand goes to his neck, nervously.

They both stay quiet for a while, not looking at each other, and then suddenly both try to break the silence at the same time: “So...”

More silence.

“Uncle Barry gave me these after I was released from the hospital when I got my powers.” Wally tries to explain.

“This was the first gift Ollie ever gave to me after he took me as his protégé.” Artemis tries too, at the same time.

They go back to the awkward silence.

“Maybe we could just keep both. You know, for a while.” Wally suggests, then, unsure.

“Yeah, totally. It’s just some DVDs, they’re not gonna overflow the house.”

And just like they pretend the moment never happened and go back to unpacking.

*

“Ok, I know Star Wars rock and all that, but to have two copies of all the DVDs is a little too much, don’t you guys think?” Dick asks them the first time he visits, almost a week after they’ve moved in.

The couple freezes, both just remembering the whole Star Wars ordeal. They had simply put both their collections on the shelf that day and never spoken or thought about it since then.

Dick seems to realize the subject was for some reason not a good one and changes the conversation, but even after hours, when he leaves, the whole DVD thing is still bothering the couple.

“I suppose… I suppose I could just take mine back home. It’s not like mom would mind.” Artemis says then, trying to be nonchalant, but Wally can see she’s stiff.

“Home?” He asks her then, his eyebrows up.

She bites her lip, not sure how to respond.

Wally sighs and moves closer to her on the couch.

“It’s just a stupid DVD that probably means nothing to Oliver _or_ Barry.” He says trying to comprehend everything. “Why can’t we just sell them?”

“Giving our private things up means that now we both own one same thing.” Artemis says then and Wally notices she’s been thinking about it for a while. “What if…” She trails off.

“What if we break up?” He guesses.

She looks away, but doesn’t deny it.

“Makes sense.” He agrees. “I guess my subconscious thought about that, too.

“I’m not saying that we’ll break up. We’ve been together for three years now, we _are_ seriously committed, jus-“

“I know, I understand.” He cuts her off. “Let’s make a deal, then.” He suggests. “Everything we have doubled, we’ll pick one and send back to our _parent’s_ house. And we’ll keep going, see if things work out – I mean, you’d think three years of relationship means something’s going right – and if in one year things are still good… we’ll get rid of those. Permanently.”

She looks at him, considering. Then she intertwines their fingers and smiles. “Sounds like a plan.”

*

Their pockets were really glad about that decision as they made some good money a year later. Deep down they both think they already knew it.


	12. Saturday

It’s a Saturday morning when Wally asks Artemis to be his girlfriend. It’s hours after they kissed for the first time at the changing of the year and they’re both coming out of a nap they involuntarily took after way too much kissing and goofing around at the mountain. It doesn’t seem like Wally _has_ to ask, but it still seems weird that he _hadn’t_ asked yet. So instead of good morning, she’s met out of her slumber with a “so, are we a couple now?”

She never really officially answers, but Wally’s pretty confident her kiss means yes.

*

It’s a Saturday morning when Artemis first meets his family. They’d been dating for a few months and he had insisted that she joined one day for breakfast – and no, Wally didn’t seem to think it was weird at all to invite someone over for _breakfast_ – so she had to give up and say yes. She’s so nervous her skin feels like it’s going to come off, and even though Wally is reassuring all the way over, she knows better. Her family is not good and neither is her past and his parents are going to see it right away – _you’re not good enough for him_.

His mother hugs her really tight, though, when she’s leaving, and says lowly on her ear that she’s glad her son has her.

Maybe she was wrong after all.

*

It’s a Saturday morning when Wally first meets her mom. She remembers him saying that he wanted her to go over for breakfast because it’s the best meal, so it seemed only fair that she invited him over for breakfast as well. He accepts right away, apparently really eager to meet her mom, and she can’t shake the feeling of happiness that sets in her stomach at that. He brings her mom her favorite flowers and tells her all the right jokes and compliments the perfect amount of things.

As she kisses him goodbye on the door, she can _feel_ her mother beaming. It’s a nice feeling, for once.

*

It’s a Saturday morning when Artemis realizes she’s in love with him. They’ve been together for a lot of months by then and the night before she’d been hurt during a mission. Nothing major, but it granted her a night in the med bay with some meds to knock her off. She wakes up to the early sounds of morning and it doesn’t take her long to notice the full head of red hair that is resting alongside her arm on the bed, his hand holding hers. Her smile is involuntary and she just feels so much love for him that it’s impossible to keep it inside. Trusting the fact that he’s sleeping, she lightly murmurs “I love you”.

His face is turned to the other side, so she can’t see it, but he soundlessly says is back.

*

It’s a Saturday morning but Artemis is not expecting anything big to happen. She’d come to notice a pattern in their first year together on how they seemed to always take important steps during Saturdays, specifically mornings, but they’ve been together for almost three years now and all the steps that were to be taken by then had been rightfully taken, most of them a while ago.

They’re at his room having breakfast, enjoying the fact that the dorm will be free the entire weekend, talking mostly about the upcoming midterms when during a change of subject Wally casually asks her if she’d like to move into a place with him.

Her heart skips a beat as her brain comprehends his words and for a moment she wonders if that’s how Wally feels, because it’s like everything is moving around super slowly in front of her, or maybe it’s just her thoughts that are too fast.

She composes herself quiakly, not wanting to overreact or giveaway how important this feels for her, and nonchalantly replies “sure”.

For a moment it’s like _he’s_ confused about what she just said, but he soon recomposes himself too and pulls her in for a kiss.

It all escalates quickly and the last thing she thinks before losing herself in him is that she really loves Saturday mornings.

*

She makes sure they schedule their move on a Saturday. None of the helpers seems happy about it, but she couldn’t care less.

This is another step for her and Wally and the only important thing is that _they_ take it together.

And they do. And it’s a Saturday morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So this is the last "drabble" in this collection! I had a lot of fun doing it and I hope you guys enjoyed. My plan since the beginning was to focus on canon moments - things in between S1 and S2, not afterwards, and no AU - so I hope you guys enjoyed it. Thank you for sticking with me, if you can please review/kudo/bookmark, and don't forget to check out my other stories! I'm Pichitinha on tumblr, follow me!


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